Chain of Command
by c2t2
Summary: The marines meet to discuss the Strawhat Pirates.


Title – Chain of Command  
Author – c2t2  
Rating/Warning – G / None  
Notes: as always, notes and explanations are available on my fanfic livejournal, username squizbee.

Summary: The marines meet to discuss the Strawhat Pirates.  
Meta-summary: a writing style experiment turned into a fanfic that is also a meta.

Chain of Command

Welcome, gentlemen. Please have a seat.

As you know, the Strawhat pirates have resurfaced, and their activities threaten to destabilize the balance of power on the seas. We have been called here to form a task force dedicated to ending this threat.

In front of each of you are documents containing what we know about the Strawhat crew. Each folder contains all the information we have on record, all the information we have off the record, and what we have gleaned through rumor and speculation.

Let's get started.

We all know about the captain, Monkey D Luffy. After the events of Marineford two years ago, we know his lineage and his abilities, and we know that a direct attack is ill-advised, as victory would come at unnecessary cost.

The key to any organization is its second in the chain of command. To cut off the head, we aim for the neck. The safest and surest method to undermining any group - legal or criminal - is to attack the command structure.

The Strawhats pose a unique challenge for using this method, as they have kept their chain of command hidden from both civilians and marines. However, we have narrowed it down to a handful of likely suspects, with a small chance of the others.

Please open your folders to the first page.

Pirate hunter Roronoa Zoro, also known in the East Blue as 'demon hunter'. We find him to be one of the most likely candidates for sub-captain of the Strawhat pirates. Our reasoning is as follows: He was the first to join the crew, which means he has seniority over the other members. He is the second of what has been informally known as the Strawhat 'Monster Trio', and is rumored to be the only one in the crew with the power to rival the captain himself. For years, he was known in the East Blue as a loner who shunned human company, but suddenly left his life as a law-abiding bounty hunter in order to become that which he once hunted. This seems highly unlikely, but becomes more understandable if he was offered a position of importance and power on the crew.

This sounds like an open-and-shut case, but bear with me and turn to the second page - to the profile of Black-leg Sanji.

Sanji is the cook aboard the Strawhat ship. He is the third member of the Monster Trio, and has the power indicated by that position. More importantly, he is the protégé and the only known student of the infamous Red-foot Zeff. I trust I don't need to explain the significance of that.

Sanji's origins are largely unknown, he seemed to first appear when Zeff retired from piracy to start the Baratie restaurant. Over the years, Sanji has had multiple opportunities and offers to leave with many ships and join many crews. Until the Strawhats, he never considered leaving his position as the second chef of the Baratie. Something enticed him to leave. It stands to reason that the Strawhats offered him a position of commensurate power as sub-captain of their crew.

Turn the page once again. The next profile is of the navigator 'Cat Burglar' Nami.

She was not officially on the record nor was she given a bounty until recently, but Nami has been unofficially known to us for many years. She had a reputation as a girl who's colder than ice and twice as hard. This next part may shock you, but we have carefully and repeatedly verified its truth, so pay attention: She is the ONLY human who was ever allowed to join the Arlong pirates. The Arlong fishmen despised and scorned humans, but she has worn the Arlong tattoo since she was ten years old. There was something truly exceptional that made the fishmen see past her humanity, and the same thing may have given her prominence in the Strawhat pirates. In fact, Nami left the Arlong crew to join the Strawhats, indicating that they offered her a higher position than the one she already attained. Furthermore, Nami has been often observed barking orders at both Roronoa Zoro and Sanji, and even the ship's captain. And they seem to obey her.

The next page contains the profile of a less likely but still possible candidate, 'Devil Child' Nico Robin. I don't need to tell any of you who she is, seeing as Enies Lobby is still being rebuilt after the Buster Call. I need only note that she was the second in command of Baroque Works, the bounty-hunting organization of the former warlord Crocodile.

Turn to the final page, gentlemen, and you'll find what we know of the rest of the crew. The shipwright Franky, formerly known as Cutty Flam, was the official head of the Water 7 demolition crew and scrap yard, and unofficially ran the entire Water 7 underworld for nearly two decades. He has significant executive experience and certainly has the skills to control an organization of criminals. The only reason we don't consider him to be a serious candidate is because he only recently joined the crew.

Below him is Sniper King. We know little about him, not even his face or his name. The only trace or clues we found were vague rumors of two tenuous connections; one, to the Giants' Island Elbaf, and the other to Yasopp, the sharpshooter on the crew of the Yonko Red-Hair Shanks. The nature of these connections is unknown.

The final entry is Brook, formerly of the Rumbar pirates, who disappeared fifty years ago, and due to a devil fruit, has resurrected from death into the form of a skeleton.

The footnote on the bottom of the page mentions their pet tanuki, the cotton candy lover Chopper.

This ends the briefing.

In the last few years, rumors have surfaced indicating that there are others on the Strawhat crew, but none are known for certain, meaning they would be inconsequential to the current power structure, which is what we seek to ascertain today.

Now, you have been presented with the information.

Make your judgment,

and we will get to work.

END


End file.
